Illustration by Ryan Greis
[Note: The print version of this article included a third play, A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant; SLM learned after press time that this play was being cancelled.]
There’s something so sticky-sweet about the holiday season—and not just the candy cane your 4-year-old cousin left under the dinner table. No, the holidays can be sweet like saccharin, with Santa, elves, carols, wassail, and so much good cheer you want to grind Rudolph into salami already. Leave it to St. Louis’ irreverent theater community to pack a sooty snowball and throw it straight at the holiday’s hallowed traditions.
• HotCity Theatre’s The Eight: Reindeer Monologues (December 4 to 19, hotcitytheatre.org) is Jeff Goode’s outrageous comedic confession of a reindeer claiming to be sexually harassed by Santa. The other reindeer come forward to corroborate a tale of perversion that would make Caligula blush. As the truth comes out, that North Pole cheer goes south. Think Elves Gone Wild.
• Echo Theatre Company’s treatment of David Sedaris’ classic SantaLand Diaries (December 4 to 20, echotheatrecompany.org) is nearly as depraved—except it’s all true. Eric Little performs the one-man show that chronicles Sedaris’ experiences as an elf at Macy’s “SantaLand” in New York. Patience is in short supply; overbearing parents are not.
